Shale gas pipe and valves in Pennsylvania, similar to those shown in the photo above, were at the heart of a costly contract dispute. ENR Art Dept. Faced with mounting interest after losing a $24-million jury verdict in Delaware County, Pa., a pipeline company late last week reached a settlement with contractor Utility Line Services, says the attorney for the contractor.The jury in April had ordered the defendant, PVR Marcellus Gas Gathering Inc., which was recently acquired by Dallas-based Regency Energy Partners, to pay Utility Line Services about $16.5 million for the amount it was owed. Another $7.8 million was

Related Links: Massachusetts Span Partially Reopens After Temporary Fix http://enr.construction.com/convert/convert.asp?filename=necoar071017e Crews in Boston are removing in sections a monolithic, 43,000-sq-ft, 4-in.-thick reinforced-concrete ceiling off an Interstate 90 tunnel using specialized trucks equipped with shipping containers and hydraulic lifts.In the predawn hours of April 6, three flatbed trailer trucks, side by side, crept out of the Prudential Tunnel in three of the four eastbound lanes carrying a 33-ft-wide, 45-ft-long slab weighing 75,000 lb—the largest of 106 sections to be removed to date, says Cory Brett, project manager for Simpson Gumpertz & Heger (SGH), the prime design contractor.The move was part of

Three construction workers were injured when a dead load on the 12th floor of an apartment building jobsite “pancaked down to the fifth floor” just before 8 a.m. on March 20, said Deputy Fire Chief Robert Calobrisi of the Boston Fire Dept. at the scene in Boston’s Theater District.

Photo Courtesy of Cambrian Innovation Containerized EcoVolt process generates power from methane; clean water is a by-product. Related Links: Craft Brewer Purchases EcoVolt Bioelectric Technology Bio-Energy Box Coverts Beer Waste to Electricity How Cambrian's EcoVolt Bioelectric Wastewater Treatment System Works Craft breweries in drought-stricken Sonoma County, Calif., are testing a novel process that generates power while recycling wastewater.Developed by an MIT spin-off firm, the EcoVolt system "takes the wastewater stream and, through anaerobic technology, turns it into methane gas that we then turn into electricity using a micro- turbine," says Leon Sharyon, CFO of craft brewery Lagunitas. Matthew Silver, a

Rendering courtesy of Footprint Power Gas-fired plant's start-up time will average about 10 minutes, versus existing plant's 12 to 16 hours. Related Links: Gas-Fired Projects Are Gaining Momentum Viewpoint: Tax Gas in the Pipelines to Help Solve Transportation Funding Crisis Construction of a new, 692-MW natural-gas-fired powerplant in Salem, Mass., is moving forward following a novel arrangement between a New England environmental foundation and a New Jersey-based company that incorporates stringent global greenhouse-gas emission reductions to comply with state climate law.On Feb. 21, Gov. Deval Patrick (D) granted final approval for construction of a new, $1-billion plant to replace the

Related Links: Hawaiian Utilities Balk at Speed of Solar Panel Adoption Xcel Solar Plan Would Triple Overall Generation Peterborough, N.H. is building a 947-KW solar array—the state's largest photovoltaic system and first solar-on-landfill project. The array is sited on former sewer lagoons at the town's wastewater treatment facility.The project has no up-front costs, thanks to a $1.2-million grant approved on Jan. 15 by the state Public Utilities Commission Renewable Energy grant program and financing through a power purchase agreement with Water Street Solar 1.The subsidiary of Borrego Solar, Oakland, Calif., will build, own and operate the plant. The town will

Related Links: Big Quincy, Mass., Makeover Features History at the Core Concerned about escalating construction costs and unpredictability of future costs, the developer in November halted work on Merchants Row, the first mixed-use complex of the $1.6-billion Quincy Center redevelopment project that broke ground five months ago in Quincy, Mass. The project, eight miles south of Boston, will now go into redesign to save money, according to Street-Works, the Quincy developer.Construction of Merchants Row—a public-private partnership with the City of Quincy and one of the largest redevelopment projects in Massachusetts—was planned in conjunction with the new Adams Green public space that will encompass the graves of

Photo by AP Wideworld The popularity of narcotic painkillers has a downside and cost that some states may not fully recognize. Related Links: Tightening Up the Rules for Hydrocodone, the Favorite PainKiller The Myth of Workers' Compensation Fraud Someone forgot to send Missouri the memo about the latest research on rising costs in workers' compensation.Concerned about fraudulent claims by workers, state Senator Mike Cunningham (R) late last year sponsored a bill that would have given employers access to a free online database of compensation claims. Employers would be able to screen workers for a history of fraud, without first securing

Related Links: Narcotic Painkillers Weigh Heavily on Workers' Compensation Costs Sober, clear-headed workers can mean life or death on a construction jobsite.So last month’s recommendations from the Food and Drug Administration for more restrictions on hydrocodone-containing painkillers is good news for construction employers and workers: the FDA wants to upgrade hydrocodone’s status from a schedule 3 narcotic—the classification for low-dose codeine-containing drugs—to a schedule 2 narcotic, the category for methadone, hydromorphone, and fentanyl.The new status would reduce the number of refills allowed before checking in with a doctor. It would require patients to bring prescriptions to a pharmacy in person

Norwegian oil-and-gas giant Statoil pulled the plug on its Hywind Maine offshore wind project due to commercial uncertainty, but the University of Maine is forging ahead with plans to build a 12-MW offshore wind farm in the Gulf of Maine by 2017.“Statoil will now focus on the Hywind concept in Scotland, a project we have matured in parallel with Hywind Maine during the last three years,” according to a Statoil statement released on Oct. 15.Trine Ulla, head of business development for floating wind at Statoil, says, “Regardless of our exit [from] Maine, we will continue to explore the U.S. offshore